June 5, 2014 7:44pm EDTJune 5, 2014 7:07pm EDTDon Zimmer's death leaves the baseball world in a state of mourning. But sadness isn't the only emotion present, SN's Jesse Spector writes. Zimmer's impact on the game leaves happy moments and memories to celebrate.Don Zimmer(AP Photo)

NEW YORK — As the baseball world mourns the loss of Don Zimmer at the age of 83, sadness is not the only emotion present, because when someone lives a life so full and so long, there are plenty of happy memories to celebrate.

"We played together, and he was a great friend," Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda said as he prepared to represent the Dodgers at Thursday night's draft. "I'm going to miss him. He was an icon, I'd say. He loved the game, lived the game, played the game, did every part of the game. We lost a great guy."

In addition to playing with Zimmer for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Lasorda managed against his friend for years — not only when Zimmer skippered the Cubs, but also in the Pacific Coast League, where Zimmer managed the last-place Salt Lake City Bees in 1970.

"When he was managing Triple-A, I was managing Spokane, we played a doubleheader, and he beat us one game," said Lasorda, whose team that year was one of the best in Pacific Coast League history. "I was really upset, and we went to meet after the game, and he said, 'Jeez, why are you upset? You're hollering, and you're in first place by 14 games! I win one game, and you're moaning and groaning about it!' He was a super guy and a friend."

Zimmer kept the game in perspective, and that helped make him an ideal bench coach for Joe Torre with the dynastic Yankees of the late 1990s.

"Torre and Zimmer were big racing fans, and it seemed that wherever we were when we were on the road, we would get on the bus and they would have a racing form right on their seat, and they would study the horses the whole time," said former Yankees relief pitcher Jeff Nelson. "I think they studied the horses as much as they studied the game."

Zimmer's penchant for the ponies was not unique to his time with the Yankees. It created a lasting memory in multiple stops over the course of his storied career.

"When I played for him, he loved to go to the track," said Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, who played for Zimmer-managed teams in both Boston and Texas. "I race horses for a living, so we used to always do that — sulky races or thoroughbreds. Don was a hunch player, because managers are hunch players, about bringing in the bullpen or pinch-runners and pinch-hitters. I think he knew the game, and unfortunately didn't have the championships when he was with Boston or the Cubs. It just didn't happen. Texas, too. He knew the game, and that's what baseball is all about. You're in the game for over 60 years, you have to learn something, so I think he was a smart individual."

Zimmer got his championship rings as a coach in New York, and that was really where he went from being one of many lifers in the game of baseball to something even greater, which is how he will be remembered by so many people.

"I think, just the influence he made on so many lives of so many players — Joe Girardi, Derek Jeter, myself, Torre — that's the memory," Nelson said. "You think about what he's done in the game, being in the game for 60-plus years, 66 years, it's pretty incredible, just to be around that long and love the game that long."